Psalm 139:2 He understands!!!!!!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 

(Psa 139:2)

Think about it.  I know you know that God knows when we sit don and when we rise up.  But have you considered that He "understands" our thoughts?  That's not just our good thoughts or our thoughts about Him but He understands our less than acceptable thoughts as well.  He understands!!

Consider:

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.   (Heb 2:17-18)

He understands!!

I don't know how to express the depth and breadth of this.  It, for me, is overwhelming and kind of a scary comfort.  He understands!!

Consider - He was made like us- He was tempted Himself.  Yes, unlike us He did not sin but He "gets it."

Now, this can in no way be taken as some sort of an excuse for our way-ward and inappropriate thoughts - sin is still sin and error will always be error - but He understands!!

As Patti and I pass through this time of testing and trial we have "not so good thoughts."  Fearful thoughts, legalistic thoughts, hopeless thoughts, fleshly thoughts and murmuring thoughts.  They just come and when they do they distress us - greatly.  But I keep having some interesting thoughts as well.

I think, "Why me, why this,why now, why so heavy?"  Kind of like Moses I want to say, "Here I am Lord, send Aaron!"   Even, "Let this cup pass from me!"  But I am humbled when

I have the thought, "If not me, then who?"  I struggle to accept that this is His will for us right now.  Not to sound arrogant - but, He picked us for this and this for us for His glory and honor - not to mention our blessing.  This makes us no more "special" than any other believers - it just makes us the ones He is using where we are, in this circumstance.

With no Egypt there would have been no Exodus.  Without a crucifixion there would have been no resurrection.  No, I'm not elevating myself or my situation but I am trying hard to see it within the context of God bringing glory to Himself and strengthening me.

What helps is, He understands my fearful and anxious thought,s and though I know He desires that I overcome them by trusting Him, He is sympathetic to my weakness and frailty (which is part of what He wants me to see and appreciate so I will lean on Him).

Please dear ones hold tight to the truth that He understands all our thoughts!  Yes, He disapproves of many and worries for us over others but none of them come as some cosmic shock to Him.  He knew we'd have them and has provided relief for and from them because He understands!

Father my heart and my mind are weak and rebellious.  Only You can temper and tame them.  Knowing that You understand and that You sympathize and provide is such a comfort.

But Father, do not let me grow lazy or complacent concerning them.  Let me take hold of them and bring them to You for Your ministry and mercy.  Be gentle with me Lord for I am much like a little rabbit - jumpy and anxious.  Care for me by giving me the heart of a child when it comes to You.  Give me stronger trust and firmer assurance as each day passes and my imaginings and fancies prove false though frightening.

Let me know more and more Your lovingkindness and Your understanding and open myself to Your instruction and care.  Make me remember Your past mercies and provision and be deaf to the lies and cries of the deceiver.  Let me look only to You and hear only You as You minister to me through Your Word, Your Spirit and Your people.

Thank You for letting me know - You understand!!

Amen

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Journal 001

Oh Lord, what more do I need to learn before You deliver me from these shadows?
I know that You discipline Yur chidren out of love.
I know that we are those through who you manifest Your glory.
But Lord, it's is so hard when we don't see the why and how of either.

You teach us to trust You by our being in need of trusting You.
Sometimes that means hard and cold places.
But they are indeed hard and cold and frightening.

We are so prone to seek ways to placate You.
But that is our error, our flesh.
You are not a God like othere gods.
Who can be bought or bribed.

You are not a God like other gods who demand their pound of flesh.

Indeed, You have cancelled our debt.
Your Son has aid the price for our redemption.
We owe You nothing but love, thanks and duty.

Yet we are week and the flesh cries out to be heard.
The flesh, so steeped in the world, so intwined with covetousness,
cries out, "Lie, a lie, you have been a fool."

But Lord, our hearts know better though our flesh denies.
What help Oh Lord can You send as we stand in the shadows?
What is the Comforters comfort.
Is there no loner provision - Oh but there is.

Lord, we cry out to You for deliverance
from our troubes.
And yet we desire gretly to wait uon You
wonderous works.

When there is no comfort here,
we so long to be with You.
and yet even in that You command.
But our hearts weaken and we cry out.

We ask Your deliverance from our troubles,
provision to just be reieved of our anxiousness.
We beg Your mercy and blessing
yet we fear our duplicity in them.

Oh Lord - help us to see and feel
the comfort we know You have given
the comfort You are giving.

We have grow blind and insensitive.
We have grown weiry and weak.
Oh Lord, though our travail
may indeed be trivial
Yet is is travail and it is ours
and it hurts.

Comfort us
lead us out of these shadows
let us sit and labor in peace and strength.

Just a question. A follow-up to the previous post.

John 19:2  And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.

I may really catch some flack for this but - well - it's on my mind and heart.

What's the difference between what the soldiers did and arraying Him in the red, white an blue?

Is this not just as mocking?

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.

What part of that do we find distasteful?  What part of that do we refuse to understand?

Guns sales and ammunition sales are UP.  Who are we going to shoot and why?

Under one of the cruelest and most oppressive governments ever known to man - indeed the very government that would kill Him and countless other believers Paul wrote:

Romans 13
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

I must be "subject" to the governing authorities - it is instituted by God.  To resist is to resist God.  Noooooooooo we can not, we must not deny our Lord for any reason - but short of that---?

We are to "do" good.  Where in this do we see rebellion and vilification?

Our government has and will continue to allow that which we believers may not do.  It is only when the government demands we violate our faith that we can and may not submit.  This is a matter of knowledge, wisdom and conscience.

There is only one government "of" God and we must obey it first and always.  Hear me clearly - there never has been and there never will be a human government that is "christian."

I could go on and on about the Christian "myths" about our country but - well - just read Romans 13 again and thin of the War of Independence - seems to be a problem here....

We may benefit from His mercy and common grace but we may not claim any special place in His world -

Please, please, please don't wrap my Lord in any robe or flag - He has His own Kingdom -

Michael "sheepdog" Sanders
ms@tc2v1.com

This and That Mockers and Mercy 100512

Eze 33:30-33  As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, 'Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.'  (31)  And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.  (32)  And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.  (33) When this comes--and come it will!--then they will know that a prophet has been among them  

Ezek 33:30-33
We read here God’s words to Ezekiel concerning those who come to hear him.  They come to be entertained, to have their ears tickled.  There is no hunger in their hearts nor is faith or faithfulness to be found.

For these “listeners” there is no “hearing,” except that which serves their gain.  But it is not spiritual or eternal gain they seek.
Let me pose a question.  If we see the evil in the attitudes of these people, why would we create something to which they are draw - invited - even actively pursued - and where their ungodly attitudes are allowed to flourish?

The movie The Field has always bothered me.  Well, not actually the movie but the belief it engendered in some that, “If you build it they will come.”  How did that ever slink its way into our faith?  Are we reaching out to people or to Crows and Magpies?  Crows and Magpies love to line their nests with shiny things.  Why they do so we can only speculate for they are not able to “value” these things.

There are certainly Crows and Magpies in the body of Christ and in some cases they are building nests to their own specifications and not by the Lord's model.  But their nests will not survive His coming.  The will burn in a millisecond.

But - what I want you to see is what the Lord tells us to do about this situation.  Re-read the passage -- go ahead, I'll wait
Did you see it?  Do yu now know what God expects of you in relation to these people?  If you say, "I didn't see anything," you've got it.  God gives us no orders concerning these people.  We're to just continue to be those who communicate the Word in a, "beautiful voice," and to be those who, "plays well on an instrument."  We are to continue to proclaim the Word which comes from the Lord.  Why?

First because judgment and condemnation are not ours to dispense.  God does not share His throne, He alone is judge and executioner.

Second, because we need to be as merciful and God is.  If these mockers are given one more day, one more opportunity to hear the Word it is because God is merciful.  The day before He made me His, the very moment before, I was His enemy.  That, one more moment, was His mercy to me - and to you.
Think about it.  Everyday that God gives an non-believing friend of ours is another opportunity for us to share His grace His Gospel.  It's a mercy to them and to us.  To them because it's another chance to hear.  To us because it's another chance to tell.  Mercy is indeed broader than we think.

Yes, they may reject the message.  But just because they might is no reason not to share.  The very possibility that He may use us to work in their redemption is a grace given to us and mercy given to them.

Think of it this way.  If someone dear to us dies and we are told that sharing the Gospel with them might bring them life - would we not do it just because it might not?  It's is little different with those dear to us who still live.  They are dead and we have the words of life.  Will we refuse to speak them because they may be rejected?  Will we reject the wondrous opportunity just because it might come to nothing?

Yes, it is frustrating to realize than many who call themselves believers are not believers.  It's painful to see them mocking God by taking entertainment from His words.  But if He gives them one more opportunity to hear, we must praise Him for His mercy and silence our flesh.  If He gives them a thousand opportunities to hear and they mock every one of them - it is still His mercy.

Let us not miss any opportunity to make good use of His mercy to the unredeemed. 

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 2:9-10

1Pe 2:9-10  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  (10)  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We are:

·         a chosen race  [family, lineage, stock]

·         a royal priesthood [a priesthood as a fraternity, a body of priests]

·         a holy nation  [the sense of nation, people, as distinct from all others]

·         a people for His own possession [a people acquired or purchased to Himself in a peculiar or unique manner]

In order that:

·         you may proclaim the excellencies of him

o   who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We are a specific “called” and “commissioned” people.

Please note that we are NOT just called that we might be saved – we are called and saved that we might serve Him and “proclaim” [make widely known] His excellencies.

Now, that proclaiming might be verbal, written or it may be in feeding or clothing.  It may be just listening – but it is for the purpose of proclaiming the truth about Him and we need to consider making that clear.  Something on the order of, “I do this in service to the God who has redeemed me and made me His own.”  Or perhaps just “4 Jesus.”

My point is this.  We are not to serve Him by “stealth.”  Proclaiming His excellencies shouldn’t be a “hidden” agenda.  When proclaiming His excellencies is an “ulterior” motive, it is no motive at all.

A friend of mine has posed the question “Can we use deception in order to be able to proclaim His excellencies”?  In other words, if the government of a country bans Christian missionaries – do we present ourselves as just well diggers or food providers?  If a country bans the Bible, do we violate its laws by smuggling Bibles into the country?

NO – you’re not going to get a definitive answer here.  This is a great matter of discussion and one about which we all must spend time in prayer and examining our consciences.

But – we are to proclaim His excellencies – to make them widely known - which is getting to be a little dangerous even in our nation. 

Where do we get the “oomph,” the moxy to do this?  Of course – from Him.  But, we can go to Him confidently because:

Once you were not a people,

but now

you are God's people;

once you had not received mercy,

but

now you have received mercy.

Please notice that once we were “not a people.”  We were all a part of different families, ethnic groups, cultures.  We were all what men call “different races,” (thank you Darwin ;-{ ).  We were “not a people.”

But God didn’t just call us together and tell us, “You are now a people.”  What He did do is call us and tell us, “You are MY people.”  That is a point we need to really get in our heads.  WE are HIS people.  AND we are His people who have HIS mercy (of course His grace as well).

I think that this is cause for joy – which I describe as a sanctified humility and thankful pride.  A pride in Him.  Pride?

Pride:  καυχάομαι, kaucháomai:  To boast, glory, exult, both in a good or bad sense.

Indeed, we should boast, glory and exult in Him, for Him and about Him.  That is our commission. 

Rom 8:3-4  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  (4)  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Today we struggle with, “Who are His people”?  All the denominations, sects, septs and other groupings of believers cause us to be cautious, which is not a bad thing.  But the bottom line is determining who “we,” is:

1Co 12:3  Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.

Yes, I know, anyone can “say” that but when the rubber meets the road or we listen to what else they say, we can, by the power of the Spirit, discern if they are SAYING that or just mouthing the words.

Let’s pray hard that we will learn to and be bold to proclaim His excellencies – and remember it is all about Him!

Peter’s Pen 1 Peter 1:3-5

1Pe 1:3-5  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  (4)  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  (5)  who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Repetition in the bible is intended to draw our attention to the importance of what’s being said.  Here Peter re-states what he said in verse 2.  There’s a little different twist but it’s the same good news!

c        1.  according to his great mercy,

h        2.  he has caused us to be born again

3        3.  to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4        4.  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for 

y             you,

5       5.  who by God's power are being guarded through faith

6       6.  for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Let’s look at two things.  The passage begins with:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Praise is important.  It doesn’t have to be excited or loud or even joyous – it just has to be praise.  And that’s what Peter is doing here.  This “blessing” is typical of traditional Jewish prayers.  “Blessed be . . . “  It simply means, “well spoken of,” “honored,” with an element of gratitude and happiness.  I know we all believe God is worthy of being well spoken of – even or especially when we see our battle with sin and our stumbling.

The second thing is, “who by God's power are being guarded through faith.”  Please notice it doesn’t quantify “faith.”  It doesn’t say a strong faith, a mighty faith, an un-disturbed faith of even a happy faith.  It just says faith.

Remember what Jesus said?

Luk 17:6  And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

Gill writes:

"for such a tree to be plucked up by the root at a word speaking, is very wonderful and miraculous, and beyond the power of nature; and much more for it to remove into the sea, and plant itself there, where trees grow not; and to believe this should be done, and such a word of command obeyed, one should think required very great faith; and yet, if it was but as a grain of mustard seed, which is very small, it might be done. The design is to show, what great things are done by faith, and what an increase of it they should have."

This isn’t about horticulture, it’s about faith. 

Jesus uses the mustard seed another time.  He says concerning the Kingdom of God:

Mar 4:31-32  It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,  (32)  yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

The Kingdom of God is “in” you, Jesus said that.  It starts like a little bitty mustard seed but Oh how it grows – remember – all trees don’t grow the same!

By God’s power YOU are being guarded through – faith!  Our faith isn’t perfect but it is being perfected. 

Remember who guards you – could you ask for better?  

Joh 10:27-28  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  (28)  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand